Nexus S Review and Rundown by TechCrunch

Correctly referring to it as "the reference phone for this generation of Android," our friends at TechCrunch have begun their review of the Google Nexus S, the next generation smartphone released with direct design input from the Google Android team. This phone was built on the bones of the Nexus One, and will be available to purchase at Best Buy in the USA through T-Mobile and at Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. - available on December 16th of this year (in ten days!) with pre-orders taken sooner. Significantly faster than Nexus One, slightly heavier than the Galaxy S, and slightly thicker, wider, taller, and with a bigger screen than iPhone 4.

The Nexus S is sized approximately 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm, contains a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and it's screen is a large 4-inch Super AMOLED 480x800 touchscreen with lots of viewing angles, nice blacks, and TechCrunch notes, only second to the iPhone 4 in quality. The 1500 mAh Lithium Ion battery provides them 6+ hours of heavy use. There's a rear facing 5 megapixel camera with flash as well as a front facing VGA camera. Inside you'll also find a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, haptic feedback, and light sensor, with 16GB of internal flash memory and no additional expansion slot.

There's Wifi, GPS, and Bluetooth of course, and everything's seeming to work without a hitch. Nexus S has Near Field Communication (NFC) inside which will eventually allow you to replace you credit card with this phone, just with a bit of a bump against a sensor at the checkout. This technology isn't fully developed yet, so TechCrunch (and we) suggest you de-activate it to preserve battery time for now, but man! The future! Noise cancellation is also inside, making for some really clear conversations.

As far as software is concerned, you'll find none other than Android 2.3 Gingerbread, improving the user interface in "many small ways" including color changes and so forth. Text entry has been slightly improved, and Gingerbread supports the use of VoIP/SIP calling. The best part about Gingerbread on this Nexus S, TechCrunch says, is the fact that it's a clean install, with no third party software to get the house all dusty.

In wrap-up, TechCrunch notes that if you're an iPhone user, this phone isn't going to make you switch to Android. On the other hand, if you're either an Android user already or haven't decided on what smartphone you'd like to try first, they recommend this phone for shizzle.

Stay tuned in the coming days, as both SlashGear and Android Community will have their own hands-on time with the device.

Okay I’ve been getting all Stoked about this new phone since I had the gen-1 G1 and now the Samsung Vibrant but, come on!? No Additional Expansion Slot!? Don’t know if I could live with only 16GB internal flash.

Hrmm….

T

I have been reading some remarks from everyone: the plastic exterior, no T-mo “4G”, no sd card slot… There are very few phones that don’t have a plasticy feeling, no t-mo “4g” ins’t a deal breaker seeing its only avail in certain cities and I don’t see it becoming more wide spread within a year. the SD card slot is fine, seeing I never upgraded my 4gb sdcard on my current phone. to have a google phone with stock android and hopefully the avialability the G1 has to updates… for a phone that will last just a year before I upgrade It seems like a great buy for me!

g1-and-only

seeing as i just received my 32gb class 4 sd card, ill be passing this one up and wait till april to see whats available, my nexus 1 will do just fine and will only be 1 year old at that time anyway

http://www.jedimoose.org mrben

No sd card slot is a mistake – either from the reviewer or from Samsung/Google. I’m hoping the former, but suspect the latter.

Stupid, stupid, stupid move.

Luis

How can you give a review if the phone is not out yet. You are basing it on what you hear… my opinion wait for the phone to come out. Right going with all this talk about Gingerbread…

http://InDevelopment-dqrservices.com Tim H.

To Whom It May Concern: Dec. 6, 2010

Since I have approval with the major Mobile Phone Manufacturer’s to development mobile phones under an approved U.S. Patent Application number awarded on Oct. 29, 2010, I hope Google can take down their reader from on-line advertising and allow me to distribute that product. In addition, a copy of a pre-release beta version of all new phones like the Nexus Phone is appreciated so that I and a team of mine can write reviews and mobile phone application notes. If anyone reading this would like to apply for a position, please contact me with your credentials to my post office box.

Epic still hasn’t received an OFFICIAL froyo release and now gingerbread going out in a few weeks. Will us epic owners ever see gingerbread? Hahahaha only at a bakery lol. Btw nexus s will FAIL just like the nexus one, why because its only on ONE CARRIER. You’ll see.

RICO

I can’t beleive Google put its stamp on an inferior phone! This phone should have had been done with the BEST specs available meaning- dual HD cams like the LG STAR (also with 1080p recording), Bluetooth 3.0, USB 3.0, HDMI out, Dual core processor, 1gb RAM, Expandable memory- via MicroSD card, 4G and World bands so those of us who travel abroad constantly don’t have to be using a different phone if we switch SIMs. Also, if they made it with world bands it would expedite fabrication as they don’t have to make 2 or 3 different phones, this is practically the MyTouch 4G with a slightly bigger screen, Gingerbread OS, no 4G and to add insult- no LED notification!

Stocklone

@Name: Mark

The official FroYo for the Epic got leaked. It’s no different then what they are going to slowly push out OTA. Look it up and download it. The upgrade only takes a couple minutes. My wife’s phone has not experienced any problems since the upgrade and can now do full Flash.

marklouie

There is a significant difference the reason why they removed the ext SD card because of stability finally realizing Apple’s Strategy. And hey they use iNAND 16GB not the usual Internal SD they used on Galaxy S variant reason for sluggish performance.

ken

marklouie,

Speculation on removing the ext SD might point to the eventual use of Google Cloud, integrated with your gmail account. Stability? I don’t think so.

From what I recall, iNAND is slower than the moviNAND used in the Galaxy S (on paper at least). Sluggish performance on the Galaxy S is mostly attributed to Samsung’s crappy proprietary file system (RFS). In addition Android Froyo was tuned for the Snapdragon. Android Gingerbread is finely tuned for the Hummingbird processor (Galaxy S, Nexus S, Iphone4)